With just three weeks to go before the US election, all eyes are on the two major candidates - one, a vibrant 59 year-old woman of the people, and of colour; the other a 78 year- old white male billionaire who has just got a massive leg up from the richest man in the world. Elon Musk is using his powerful social media platform X to trumpet his support of the Republican candidate to his  201 million followers. So will Musk’s support of  Trump be enough to beat the beacon of hope that is Vice President Kamala Harris?

In this special extended edition of TWICS, co-host Brett Solomon reflects on his 15 years as Executive Director of Access Now.

When he started in the job Facebook and Twitter were just emerging as social media platforms. Since then we've seen the rise of both as powerful tech tools and the internet as a force for good, evil and all the grey areas in between.

What are the challenges ahead for digital rights defenders and how can citizens get involved to protect their data online?

This Week In Cyberspace, Julian Assange was brought back home to Australian soil in Canberra after a 14 year trial.

The following morning, Senator David Shoebridge organised a press conference in Parliament House with Assange's wife Stella Assange, legal team Jennifer Robinson and Barry Pollock, Senators Zoe Daniel, Murray Watt, Peter Wish-Wilson, and former Senator Scott Ludlam.

TWICS was on the sidelines - 27.6.24

We examine the growing battle between tech giants and governments around the world.

In the US, Biden has signed off on an ultimatum to Tik Tok to divest or be banned. In Australia, the eSafety Commissioner has issued an ultimatum to X to either take down the video of the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney or pay a daily fine of $785,000 per day. And then there's the European Union where the digital commissioner says a new ‘task and reward program’ on TikTok Lite could be as ‘addictive as cigarettes’.

It's the age of global digital brinkmanship.

The Prime Minister of Australia has called him an “arrogant billionaire” who’s “chosen ego and violence over common sense”. In return, Elon Musk has sarcastically thanked the PM for informing the public that his platform "is the only truthful one”. 

The battle lines are clearly drawn with the eSaftey Commissioner issuing a court order for X to remove a video of the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney last Monday. It’s a contest between what Musk sees as the right to free speech and what the Australian government claims is a duty to protect its citizens from “extreme violent content”,

So, what goes up? And what comes down? And who decides?

Lavender. Sounds pretty vanilla right? But it’s actually the name of the Artificial Intelligence machine allegedly targeting Israel’s bombs at Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza. The system has generated  “mass target creation and lethality”, especially in the first six weeks of the conflict. But with a 10% error rating,  the fallout for Gazan civilians has been horrific.

On the back of a report by +972 Magazine, we probe into the interplay between technology and conflict.

This Week In Cyberspace we take a look at hate speech online in the context of conflict. With the UN calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and the horrific human toll of Palestinian civilian lives still rising, certain words are coming under intense scrutiny.

META is reviewing the use of the word 'Zionist' on its platforms, while the Arabic term 'Saheed' - the word for martyr - is responsible for the most content takedowns across all of its platforms.

But what are the implications for free speech and rational debate online?

It's the biggest year of voting in global history. Seventy countries will decide their governance including citizens of no less than twenty-one African nations. But with many of those already on the Election Watchlist for internet interference, how many will claim to be bastions of democracy?

With a humanitarian crisis of apocalyptic proportions underway in the African heartland of Sudan, what role do tech-cos have in navigating a way through this?

Putin is locked in for a 5th term, largely through the control of information on the internet, while Elon Musk’s quest for world domination also continues apace with the release of the raw computer code behind his new xAI Chatbot.

On top of all that, the Chinese owned company behind TikTok is being forced to sell up in the US, and over in the EU, the AI Act has come into law essentially enabling developers to go for broke. 

It's been a busy week in cyberspace!

Did Kate Middleton actually doctor her own family photograph? Or has she actually been abducted by aliens? How fake images can ignite a bonfire of wild conspiracy theories.

And turncoat Donald Trump once wanted TikTok banished from the USA. Now that he's banned from Facebook for telling lies and inciting his followers to storm the Capitol, he wants the legislation he introduced to be reversed. But with Biden poised to sign off on it, is it all too late for him and TikTok's 150 million American users?